I have two large Chinese bowls on my patio. Last summer I bought lotus to grow in each (I take the plants out in the fall and sink them in my large pond for the winter). When they didn't bloom last year, I chalked it up to the fact that they were new and needed to establish themselves in the plastic pots.
So far this year, LOTS of nice foliage, but still NO BLOOMS! I've fertilized each once a month with plant tabs - what's wrong?
This message was edited Jul 21, 2008 7:55 AM
My lotus won't bloom!
Here's a photo. It's odd the one on the left is half the size of the one on the right - this whole thing has me baffled - they get the same light, the same fertilizer, etc.
This message was edited Jul 21, 2008 7:59 AM
What a gorgeous patio and garden. I love it. Where did you get those pots for the lotus? I wish I knew more about lotus but even if I did I think I would have gotten too distracted by your beautiful picture!
Don't know much about lotus as this is the first year for mine. I have noticed in farm ponds and such that they seem to bloom better if they are crowded and established. Do you have them in the same pot and just move the whole pot or do you uproot them every year? If you dig them up every year the root disturbance may bother them. I know that lotus form tubers as well and that may also be something to look into. Perhaps they need to have nice big tubers to bloom. I am sure that someone with more experience will have the answer for you! :^)
The lotus are planted in plastic pots which are set inside the bigger yellow bowls. This is their second year without disturbance - last fall I took the plastic pots out and sank them in my larger, in-ground pond for the winter. I called a local water-garden nursery, who suggested intensifying the feeding, so I did, but still no blooms.
In the right conditions Lotus will bloom first year from nearly any tuber size. They could have been mislabeld when you bought them, but still you should see a bloom, even if not the one you expected. They are a full sun plant. They will grow well, but not bloom, if they get 6 hours of sun but they need real, full sun to bloom well. Try moving the pot to as full a sun position as you can arrange and see if that makes a difference. I'm assuming here that the pots they are in are round and don't have corners. Lutus will stunt if the growing tip lodges in a corner of a square or rectangular pot.
If sun is the issue, and to keep the symmetry, try a pair of dwarf papyrus in those beauiful glazed pots. Papyrus don't flower but they have a beauty all their own.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55189/
Your garden statuary and hardscape design is just gorgeous. Wow!
Snapple, you're too kind. They are in as full of sun as my yard gets - approximately 9:00 am until 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Interestingly, the pot on the left must get a little less sun - as you can see, it is HALF the size of the pot on the right.
It's interesting you'd recommend papyrus! Here are the pair of dwarf papyrus I added this spring next to my round pond - at the south end of the patio, facing the two lotus - again, one is doing better than the other.
LOL. I should have known that you would have the papyrus. You have it all together in the landscaping and plant combining department. As for the plant differences I'm just thinking sun at this point. Can you post more pics of your gardens? It should be in a magazine.
LeawoodGardener - You have the same problem that I am having. Same general area, same fertilizer, same type of pot. Though mine are 2 different Lotus cultivars. One has been blooming like crazy, the other none so far. My entrance to my Butterfly and Hummingbird garden doesn't look quite as pristine as your beautiful garden, but you can see I am doing something similar.
The larger one on the left is the one that has been blooming a lot. The flowers are a pale yellow. I believe it is called "Tulip" I have no blooms or buds on the one to the right. It is supposed to be a red flower. (Red Scarf.) I am sure it has something to do with the fertilizer. Though I am fertilizing both lotus using the same quantity and pond pellets in each pots. Maybe they just need time to mature and bloom?
In this photo you can see two more buds of Tulip as well as some spent buds and ripe pod. They only bloom for about 2 days and then the petals start falling off the flower.
This is the lotus in my pond, which blooms like crazy. It's a pale yellow - the flowers only last two days, but to me, that's part of the beauty of them - they are fragile and temporary. The lotus in the bowls were purchased at a local pet store (where I buy fish for my pond - a neighborhood heron keeps cleaning out all my fish) - the guy at the pet store didn't know what color the two I have in the bowls are, but the price was right (and I didn't care about color - I just wanted a pair of lotus for the bowls).
WOW! That is really beautiful and serene looking! Are those hibiscus in the pots on each side of the pond? Abdolutely lovely!!!
Yes, I have several hibiscus in pots - I drag them to the basement for winter, do my best to kill them (LOL), then drag them back to the patio in the spring. Every fall I swear I'm going to let them freeze and start over the next spring, but then I get worried that I can't replace them (or can't afford to!), so I drag them to the basement for another winter.
